October 5th, 2006
This is an assignment I did for my class, to turn in tomorrow, actually. It doesn’t have to be all that… perfect, I guess. It’s just a page long, double spaced, at that. But I just wanted to post it up here. I have much to share, thoughts and so on, after this week is over.
First, I want to start and say that I could have pulled answers “right out of the book”, but I wanted to try something a little eccentric and dig a little different and on my own. First let me share in what I have learned from some Hebrew definitions I found. The Hebrew for “labor” is âbad which during the six days, that is what God wants us to do, basically serve, earn wages, whether as a slave or not. It is a “work” of working in any sense and being a servant. Now the word “work” in Hebrew is melâ'kâh which means, in a general sense, employment. It also means that of occupation.
Now the question I am faced with is this: Were Jesus’ activities on the Sabbath a violation of divine law? NO. And the reason is this. Jesus first did not do the things he did as an “occupation,” per se. And when Christ was telling someone to pick up their mat after they had been crippled for years on end, time aside, picking up a mat alone isn’t breaking the Mosaic Law (which is below, and Hebrew definitions above), which Christ was under. He wasn’t earning wages. The Pharisee’s had, and it is understandable why they originally did these things, stretched out the law so that God wouldn’t become displeased with them in breaking the law and placing them back into exile. But by doing so, they lost the heart of what the law was originally about, it became rules to follow, rules made up by men. The Pharisee’s “created” a definition of their own of what “work” was to them, and enforced it upon other Jews. When Christ came, he simply went back to the original meaning (being the Messiah made it pretty easy).
“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” (Exodus 20:8-11)
This is an assignment I did for my class, to turn in tomorrow, actually. It doesn’t have to be all that… perfect, I guess. It’s just a page long, double spaced, at that. But I just wanted to post it up here. I have much to share, thoughts and so on, after this week is over.
First, I want to start and say that I could have pulled answers “right out of the book”, but I wanted to try something a little eccentric and dig a little different and on my own. First let me share in what I have learned from some Hebrew definitions I found. The Hebrew for “labor” is âbad which during the six days, that is what God wants us to do, basically serve, earn wages, whether as a slave or not. It is a “work” of working in any sense and being a servant. Now the word “work” in Hebrew is melâ'kâh which means, in a general sense, employment. It also means that of occupation.
Now the question I am faced with is this: Were Jesus’ activities on the Sabbath a violation of divine law? NO. And the reason is this. Jesus first did not do the things he did as an “occupation,” per se. And when Christ was telling someone to pick up their mat after they had been crippled for years on end, time aside, picking up a mat alone isn’t breaking the Mosaic Law (which is below, and Hebrew definitions above), which Christ was under. He wasn’t earning wages. The Pharisee’s had, and it is understandable why they originally did these things, stretched out the law so that God wouldn’t become displeased with them in breaking the law and placing them back into exile. But by doing so, they lost the heart of what the law was originally about, it became rules to follow, rules made up by men. The Pharisee’s “created” a definition of their own of what “work” was to them, and enforced it upon other Jews. When Christ came, he simply went back to the original meaning (being the Messiah made it pretty easy).
“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” (Exodus 20:8-11)
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